KeepEmCookin.com Forum

My beautiful baby girl Abigail Grace joined us on January 2nd at 12:43pm. She was born at 31 weeks, was 17.25" long and 4 lbs 5 oz. Lots of dark hair and some beautiful dark gray-blue eyes that will probably turn brown like mom's!

I was placed on bed rest for a short cervix at 27 weeks and had weekly negative ffn's. Unfortunately though I was in the 1% who went into labor within the 14 days following a negative. I woke up on the morning of the 2nd at 7:30am with mild contractions. Within less than an hour they had intensified and were 3 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute each. I arrived at L&D at 9:30am and they were 2 minutes apart and still lasting a minute each. I was 3cm dilated and fully effaced. I was given steroids and started on a magnesium drip and fluids. My contractions were off the charts and coming back to back with less than 30 seconds of recovery time. I was checked at 5cm and an hour later was 7+. I was planned to be a repeat cesarean so at this point my doctor was confident labor wasn't stopping and we prepared for the OR. In the 30 or so minutes it took to get prepared for surgery I started feeling the need to push and my contractions were almost constant. Finally, at 12:43 my beautiful girl was born screaming and healthy.

She spent 24 hours on a ventilator and needed some surfectant in her lungs to help her breathing. Once she received that she quickly moved to a high flow nasal cannula on room air and as of her one week birthday is now breathing on her own. She's receiving mom's milk through a feeding tube, and has started breastfeeding some. She's still on a heater to help regulate her temperature, but is slowly coming down on the amount of heat and will likely be in open crib within a week. We're expecting to have her home when she's around 36 weeks gestation if there are no surprises that come our way before then. Big brother Caleb (2 years old born at 34 weeks) just went into remission from cancer and is doing amazing and is so exited to meet his baby sister!! Abigail is my second and final bed rest success.

That’s amazing news Kmuss, I’ve been waiting to hear an update from you. Glad Abigail is doing so well, and I’m so pleased for Caleb, what an amazing little boy he is. Hopefully these next few weeks will pass by quickly and she can join you at home. Keep us updated....congratulations x

Congratulation, Kmuss! It is wonderful you were able to get as far as you did! It sounds like she is a real trooper, with already breathing on her on and nursing sometimes. That's fantastic! Get as much skin-to-skin time as you can (and your husband, too) and she'll be home before you know it.

If you'd feel comfortable with it, perhaps you could post a picture on Facebook or Twitter for us. https://www.facebook.com/KeepEmCookin/ or https://twitter.com/KeepEmCookin

And what wonderful news about Caleb. Amazing! I have tears.

I know you've been down the preemie road before, but don't hesitate to reach out to the preemie support groups for extra support.